Oscar de la Renta “Five Decades of Style” in Dallas

Oscar de la Renta: Five Decades of Style” has opened at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas. It includes 67 mannequins outfitted in clothes from 1967 to the present. The exhibit runs through Oct. 5. Why the Bush museum? Because De la Renta often dressed First Lady Laura Bush in her White House days.

The exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to examine, through Oscar de la Renta’s designs, the unique role of the First Lady as our country’s official hostess to world leaders and diplomats and as a trendsetter in style, fashion, and entertaining. Daywear and evening dresses worn by Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Reagan are on display, as well as garments worn by members of First Families, including Jenna Bush’s wedding dress.

As former first lady Laura Bush gazed at the elegant knee-length Oscar de la Renta dress and coat she wore to the swearing-in ceremony at her husband’s 2005 inauguration, she recalled that white turned out to be the perfect color choice.